1.Everyone shall possess the right to freely express and publicise his thoughts in words, images or by any other means, as well as the right to inform others, inform himself and be informed without hindrance or discrimination
2.Exercise of the said rights shall not be hindered or limited by any type or form of censorship
Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, Article 37.º

McCann Detectives hassling Algarve: 'Leave us alone once and for all'

"Leave us alone once and for all", is the request made by a former Ocean Club employee, in praia da Luz, Lagos, who has been "insistently" contacted by a new group of private investigators hired by the McCann couple.

"They've contacted me three times, by letter, by phone and recently they came knocking at my door. They were two women, one Portuguese another English, searching for evidence to reopen the process, but we want to forget what has happened. We will only answer to questions made by the Judiciary Police", vented the woman in frustration. She is one of the witnesses heard during the investigation to Madeleine's disappearance, in May 2007.

This is an action that the former coordinator of the Portuguese Judiciary Police classifies as "illegal". Even suggesting for "those people to be identified and heard by the police because they are committing a crime."

This revelation comes a day after Wikileaks, quoted by Spanish newspaper "El País", disclosure of the contents of a conversation between the United Kingdom and the United States ambassadors, with the first affirming that the police of his own country had gathered evidence incriminating the child's parents.

"That had been already stated by the PJ and figures on the process. It was the conviction of both police forces, however it had never been assumed from the British side. The only novelty is, that, for the first time, there is someone who is not Portuguese, affirming that there were suspicions against the couple, which reinforces the investigation thesis", said Gonçalo Amaral.

Yesterday, in a declaration, the Portuguese Attorney General, considered that there are no "new, credible and relevant" facts to determine the reopening of the investigation related to Madeleine McCann.

hold on,dave edgar is trying to get proof to re-open the case, so whats all this about the mccanns lawyer saying the mccanns dont want the case to be re-opened,seems some one is telling porky,s again. i think dave and co ought to be arrested for hassling witnesses

The Forensic Science Service (FSS) is to be wound up, the Government has confirmed.

Crime Prevention Minister James Brokenshire said action needed to be taken as the service was making operational losses of £2 million per month and was likely to run out of money by January.

The aim is that there will be "no continuing state interest in a forensics provider by March 2012", Mr Brokenshire told MPs.

Mr Brokenshire said: "The current challenging forensics market has put the FSS back into serious financial difficulty.

"FSS is currently making operating losses of around £2 million per month.

"Its cash is due to run out as early as January next year.

"It is vital we take clear and decisive action to sort this out."

In a written statement to MPs, he continued: "The police have advised us that their spend on external forensic suppliers will continue to fall over the next few years as forces seek to maximise efficiencies in this area. HMIC (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary) concur with this assessment. We have therefore decided to support the wind down of the FSS, transferring or selling off as much of its operations as possible.

"We will work with FSS management and staff, Acpo (Association of Chief Police Officers) and other suppliers to ensure an orderly transition but our firm ambition is that there will be no continuing state interest in a forensics provider by March 2012."

The FSS employs about 1,650 staff and has been a Government-owned company since 2005, an FSS spokeswoman said.

Clearly the McCanns are not interested in any kind of investigation that they do not control themselves and one can only speculate why that should be. As they have no personal expertise in crime investigation and are constantly complaining about running out of money (as if supposedly neglecting a child to the point of losing her naturally entitles one to an indefinite and unlimited flow of public money), you'd think they'd be utterly delighted that the local police may reopen the case. And yet their lawyer is now publicly saying they don't want this. I'm sure they were telling us all a different story when they were asking for handouts a few weeks ago: "Nobody is looking for Madeleine except us..." Be careful what you wish for Kate and Gerry.

Could this be the same lady that was pestered/persecuted by Mrs. Hubbard at the request of Kate McCann? The lady was a former worker of the O.Club and was insistently approached by the vicar's wife, who told her that Kate wanted very much to talk to her, and Mrs. Hubbard even went to her house and tried to look into her computer!The former worker said that she was on leave from work at the time of the events, but...it seems that her house overlooks the church...I hope this lady and anyone else who gets harassed by the McCann detectives will file a complaint against them with the police!

It is very disturbing to see that the UK police will still not step in and arrest all of these dangerous and persistent private investigators who are causing nuisance and fear to residents and workers in Portugal and other countries. They are acting illegally and with absolutely no authority whatsoever.

These investigators should be arrested the very moment they ever dare to arrive on Portuguese tarmac again! Why have the Portuguese been so patient with regard to this? I hope it is because they want to bring such a flood of charges against them for repeating the same illegal acts of intimidation over and over again, that they can bang them up in jail for few years.

Why the f*ck do these private investigators persist in interfering in this case? Why do they need to do private inestigations when Portugal has its own police service ..... who are already confident as to who their prime suspects are?

The private investigators need to stay in the UK and sit down to read the police files. Then watch the video of the doggies before going directly to Leicester police station to ask them why the f*ck they were deliberately withholding evidence from the PJ for five months! Let's see how patient the Leicester police are with these private investigators would be compared with the Portuguese police!

anon 8I agree anyone hassled by these private dicks should complain to the police, this is illegal to approach official witnesses. Their using the ploy that they want evidence to reopen the case, NO THEY WANT TO KNOW WHAT MAY HAVE BEEN SAID THEY ARE UNAWARE OF. For ex policemen to allow themselves to be manipulated into this one, they should know most of all the legalities of approaching official witnesses, and working illegally in Portugal. I cant respect this behaviour, but money buys all.No way do McSpams want this case reopened. Someone somewhere must offer something to get this case reopened, my only hope is the satellite pictures appear on wikileaks. It does not look like any police force will do it, if its not reopened how can they discover new evidence.

The irritating comments on the "Official Find Madeleine Campaign" make it clear that the upcoming McCann book was written to counteract Mr. Amaral's book which the McCann team fully expects to be released in Britain. This is no surprise. Since the death of their daughter every action the McCann couple has initiated has been to protect their image and of course this entails obscuring the facts and discrediting the sources of the facts pertaining to the case. One day after the release of the WikiLeaks tidbit, what happens? The McCann team tries to draw attention away from this perceived bad news by sending pseudo detectives to Portugal and by making sure that the newspapers let the world know that they are there; all too predictable and by now very nauseating.

"I will be buying Kate's book......""keep the fund going....."

That is the drift of that site, nothing to do with any concern for the life of a child.

This case will be re-opened but we will have to wait for the familiar faces that are in power in Portugal to be removed from office. Given the ever worsening state of the economy in Portugal, we won't have to wait long.

If McCann privates are fishing for Ocean Club witnesses to give them confidential information, they must fear that the witnesses know something important to the case. Are they fishing for the stand-alone evidence the Snr Amaral referred to. Saying that the information will be used to re-open the case is just a 'sprat to catch a mackerel'. So they must fear that the Ocean Club employees must know something. Whenever they say "we want to review/re-open the case", this is just to get the people to open up,- either their purses or their mouths.

The ocean club. Begins and ends there. Devious little fuckers these Portuguese. But when was the lady time Portugal won a war? The fascists rolled over and let themselves take a stiff one up the shitter from the left in 74. They make lovely wines and shoes though.

The problem with private detectives sniffing around in Portugal is that there is a sort of "void" in the law, regarding their activities. It's a "no man's land", there aren't specific laws that rule what they can or cannot do, as far as I know. I believe it is ILLEGAL to have a private investigation going on AT THE SAME TIME an official investigation is on, but since this is not the case anymore, I'm afraid that the presence of the McCann's detectives in Portugal is sort of protected by that "void". The only way the authorities can act on them is if they have official complaints from the people who have been persecuted and disturbed by those individuals, otherwise I suppose they are free to come and go as they please, ask questions, etc.,it's sad, but it seems there's not much the portuguese police can do about it. That's why I wish that EVERYONE who get's approached by those people calls the police on them! I certainly would, even if all the police can do is to bring them into the police station and identify them, at least they would get the message that they are not wanted here, that the portuguese peole are on to them and will not tolerate their terrorist tactics!

As I understand it the UK government & the McCanns put pressure on the Portuguese to shelve the case so they could lift the Arguido status, amongst other things.So now all we hear is them bleating that nobody is looking for their daughter.They had as much to do with the shelving of the case, if not more than the Portuguese.HOW DARE they say nobody is looking for Madeleine.

That said, I doubt if Portugal dares to break some kind of deal with UK that I think was made to shelve the case.

Or, it could be that it has indeed cost Portugal a huge amount of money trying to make sense of the case & they cannot simply pour any more into it.I`m sure they would love to, but can`t.

What we need are some lovely rich backers who really have Madeleine`s interests at heart to pour some of their plentiful dosh into the Portuguese kitty. There should in my opinion be a fund set up for just that.

It is important to express an opinion even if it is not shared by everyone. I do not agree with opinions expressed on this case but attacking and wishing them harm is not the way to get your point across. You are entitled to your opinion as is everyone but a little bit of respect goes a long way.

...wow..i'm astonished at some of the comments made to Joana on this site..on this page..but then again maybe i should not be, as after all, after many yrs of working with Brits i should not be surprised at demeaning and ridiculing and insinuating threats of any sort..they go abroad and whilst there they call the people of that country foreigners, even met Brits in the Canaries assuming they are in the south of Portugal that is British territory just like Gibraltar..(no, i'm afraid i am NOT joking!)..anyway..Joana, no matter how awful these simpleminded wishes against you are, stay strong! I believe ultimately that your blog is extremely important first of all for people to be able to freely express what they feel in regard to Madeleine and her terrible "destiny" (in lack of a better word)..The way i see it, the "investigation" conducted by the McCanns should be STOPPED by some authority or another, it makes whole institutions and governments look ridiculous, and suspicious in themselves. Nowhere was there ever heard of the parents of a missing person being allowed to lead their own intimidating "investigation" into anything. The McCanns should be treated as suspects at the LEAST until proven to be either guilty or not guilty..and nowhere EVER did was a suspect allowed to conduct their own investigation (if that is what you can call what the McCanns are doing)! into a crime the very suspect may have committed. The whole scenario is ABSURD! And the threats against you Joana are intimidating to say the least, even to me that is only reading them!